A variety of racks have been developed for air drying damp fabric articles. Such racks are commonly found in kitchens and bathrooms. In conventional form, racks traditionally include a bar mounted to a wall with brackets for allowing damp fabric articles, such as towels, undergarments, hosiery and like, to be hung for drying. These conventional racks fail to facilitate rapid drying. As a result, fabric articles tend to pile up or compete for space on the conventional rack and remain on the rack until dried naturally by the surrounding atmosphere.. Thus, there is a need for a rack which increases drying time so that newly damp fabric articles can be hung for drying without waiting for previous damp articles to dry or without piling them on top of the previous hung damp articles
Conventional racks also lack the ability to warm fabric articles which may already be dry. Experience has revealed that it is desirable to have a warm towel after washing or showering. For instance, the touch of a freshly warmed towel is pleasant after washing or showering, especially so in cold weather climates. Thus, there in also a need for a rack assembly that not only facilitates enhanced drying of fabric articles, but that also warms them beyond ambient temperatures.
To accelerate the drying and to warm fabric articles, known solutions include blowing heated air across the fabric article while it hangs from the rack. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,094,076, issued to Baslow (Baslow '076), discloses a fixture serving as a storage holster for a portable hair dryer and also functioning as a rack for drying and warming towels and the like. More particularly, the fixture includes a vertical holster section having at one end an open socket for receiving the nozzle of a conventional portable hair dryer. The lower end of the holster section connects to a horizontal hollow rack section having perforations therealong. The interior of the holster section and the rack section communicate so that hot air from the hair dryer is eventually emitted from the rack section through the perforations onto the fabric article.
One known shortcoming with the fixture disclosed in Baslow '076 includes the standard hair dryer necessary to provide the warm air. It is desirable to provide an improved rack with enhanced drying and warming capability without requiring an external hair dryer. That is, the rack must be a self-contained unit having its own internal mechanical components.
Another known shortcoming is that the fixture disclosed by Baslow '076 consumes an undesirable amount of space in that it has both the holster section and the rack section extending perpendicular from one another. It is desirable that the rack only consume space similar to that necessary for a conventional rack. Thus, it is desirable that the means for providing warm air does not unduly enlarge the rack.
One attempt at alleviating the above shortcomings is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,668,368, issued to Jacobs (Jacobs '368). More specifically, Jacobs '076 discloses a rack having vertically spaced, parallel support bars mounted to the wall by housings at each end. One of the housings contains an electric motor and fan for directing air over heating elements and then into each of the bars. The bars include outlet openings enabling the air to exit the bars onto a fabric article supported by one of the bars.
One known shortcoming with the rack disclosed in Jacobs '368 relates to its undesirable size resulting from the housing units employed to support and attach the bars to the wall and to house the devices to provide warm air. As already mentioned, it is desirable that the rack assembly be a self-contained compact unit with virtually a conventional rack-like silhouette.
A further shortcoming of the rack disclosed in Jacobs '368 pertains to the bars for supporting the fabric article. The bars disclosed in Jacobs '368 are narrow and do not spread the fabric article portions draped over each side of the bar sufficiently to allow for drying or warming of the lower portions of the fabric article. Only the portions of the fabric article at the rack bars and the bars immediate vicinity are ensured to be dried or warmed. In order to ensure complete warming and drying, the fabric article would have to be left for an undesirable length of time. This is especially the case with a longer fabric article, such as a bath or beach towel. Thus, it is further desirable that the rack provide sufficient spacing between the towel portions draped over each side of the rack bar to ensure that the lower portions are affected.
Another even further known shortcoming of the rack disclosed in Jacobs '368 rack pertains to the flow of the air in the bars and out the perforations. The disclosed perforations and internal chamber of the bars do not facilitate forced air flow at the remote ends of the bars under certain conditions. For instance, under certain air supply flows to the bar, the air emitting from the perforations at the remote bar ends will be less than that at the perforations at the near end. As a result, the fabric article will not dry uniformly. Thus, it is desirable that the rack dry the fabric article uniformly in the transverse direction as well as longitudinally.
It is the primary object of the present invention to provide a rack assembly with a conventional rack-like silhouette, but further providing enhanced drying and warming capability in a single, self-contained unit.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a rack assembly which is easily mountable to either a wall or other structure or directly to an existing conventional rack.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a rack assembly having enhanced drying and warming capability which uniformly drys and/or warms the fabric article in a more efficient and effective manner than previous devices.
An overall object of the present invention is to provide a rack assembly having all the above-mentioned objects which is highly durable, efficient and cost effective to manufacture, install and operate.